The contest The European Commission recently launched a campaign to encourage more young women to choose science in their future careers. With several countries taking part, the cornerstone of the campaign is a fresh and lively webpage, called Science: It’s a girl thing! A video of the same name was made to raise awareness of the campaign. And indeed it did! The video was successful in creating discussion and engagement, triggering an animated debate on how to promote science to young women – a crucial element in bringing the campaign to life. However, feedback about the contents of the film was mixed so the Commission decided to remove it.

Although the original video is no longer being used, the campaign for this important cause remains. That’s why the European Science Foundation has teamed up with Curt Rice (check out his excellent blog: http://curt-rice.com/) to devise and sponsor a contest to make a new video that rivals the European Commission original. The competition offered people the chance to highlight the diverse career options that science offers to young women everywhere and to help raise young women’s interest in science! It was being promoted by a number of science bloggers and tweeters and Nobel Prize winner Brian Schmidt (Physics, 2011) has made a donation so that we could give a cash prize! The winning videos has been shown at the European Gender Summit Networking Event 2012, November 29 at the Science14 in Brussels.

Prize donor

Brian Schmidt is an astronomer at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University. Raised in Montana and Alaska, USA, Schmidt moved to Australia in 1994. As leader of the High-Z SN Search team, Schmidt was integral to the 1998 discovery that the Universe's expansion is accelerating, work that was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. Schmidt continues to work in several areas of astronomy, including leading the SkyMapper Survey, a 5 year project to make a comprehensive digital map of the Southern sky from ultraviolet to near infrared wavelengths. Schmidt is a strong advocate for quality education from primary to tertiary levels, and at improving the career structures for young people undertaking research careers.

The Jury Panel

Laura Lauritsalo is Senior Administrator at European Commission. She has worked more than ten years in DG Research and Innovation  in particular on issues related to Science in Society, Responsible Research and Innovation, Gender and Science Education. Currently she is working in the Gender Sector in the European Research Area Directorate.

 

Cheryl Miller, founder of Zen Digital Europe, is a recognized digital social entrepreneur with twenty years of international experience in the tech and ICT sectors.  Cheryl's work to promote science and technology to women and girls has been recognized by the United Nations and the European Commission, and she is consulted worldwide as an expert and speaker on topics related to digital inclusion, digital literacy, gender equality, youth and female leadership, and entrepreneurship, especially in STEM fields.  In 2008, Cheryl founded Zen Digital Europe, a sustainability consultancy addressing gender equality and climate change, and promoting ICT and digital media to achieve the Europe 2020 vision. Since 2011, Zen Digital Europe is the Belgian contact point for the European Centre for Women and Technology. Cheryl is a founding boardmember of Greenlightforgirls.org, and held the positions of Technology Chair and European Director from April 2010 to November 2012.  Cheryl is founder of the Women2020 platform, the InspireGirls.org and DigitalMuse.org initiatives, and member of the Strategic Committee for Female Board Pool Belgium.

Antigoni Papadopoulou is a Member of the European Parliament, repersenting Cyprus. She is a member of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.

Curt Rice is the elected Pro Rector for Research & Development at the University of Tromsø for the period 2009–2013. He is also the Head of Board for CRIStin (Current Research Information System in Norway). He has served as a co-editor of Linguistic Inquiry and on the editorial boards of several journals. Rice frequently debates and writes about the politics of higher education and research. He is particularly focused on leadership development, gender equality, open access and research-based education; these are the topic of his blog, www.curtrice.com: Thoughts on university leadership. Rice is a member of the genSET science leaders panel. His work on gender equality at UiT has been featured in articles in Science, Nature, and The Lancet. Rice’s extensive work on gender balance in academia has been acknowledged University of Tromsø Gender Equality Prize.